Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper clowns around with one of the horses from artist Nick Cave’s “Herd.” This is from a press event Thursday afternoon.Photo by Evan Semón, Biennial of the Americas.

Sprawling and spirited, quick and quirky, the 2013 Denver Biennial of the Americas was a surprising success. The six-day event, a combination of public chats, private confabs, over-sized art and noisy parties, passed in a rush and accomplished much of what it set out to do.

There were smart conversations between people from across the hemisphere, world-class exhibitions and some genuine luminaries from business and media. The show had its highs and lows, for sure, but there is no cause for anyone to be embarrassed and more than a few good reasons to feel proud.

It’s hard to tell if the biennial, which wrapped Sunday, achieved its very ambitious goal of raising Denver’s international profile artistically and intellectually. How would you even measure such a thing in the short term? But it did get people with a little clout to represent our cause; just assembling the leaders of Google, Qualcomm and Netflix here at once is attention-grabbing, and they’re kind of guys with the power to spread the word. Hopefully, they’ll Tweet nice things.

No doubt, it helped the reputation of its local organizers. The event’s number one backer, Gov. John Hickenlooper, even got a nomination for vice-president, when the poised and pointed celebrity journalist Tina Brown, a biennial participant, wrote a column on her “The Daily Beast” website Thursday, suggesting he run as Hilary Clinton’s No. 2 in 2016.